The decline of empires begins with immigration
Rigid immigration policies and the spread of misery among others have always helped the fall of empires. A bewildering assertion which nevertheless is verified in the time. The same causes produce the same effects, some would try to say, as long as one has knowledge of the past to make parallels with the present and the future. The terms Immigration, emigration, globalization, integration of foreigners, free circulation of people which make the headlines in the 4 corners of the world are not new concepts. From the moment that human beings became sedentary, settling to build a semblance of civilization with its corollary that is identity, , the problem of the foreigner, the mistrust towards the one we do not know or hospitality towards the other, arose. The luster of ancient Egypt in an era dominated by obscurantism of peoples that surrounded it, is the main reason for its decline. In the history of humanity misery has never been a good match for opulence, the gap between the rich and the miserable defined by the dominant paradigm has always led to the decadence of great civilizations. The so-called civilized nations, feeling strong enough to take possession of other geographical areas, to exploit and assimilate peoples, always create a sectarian categorization defining those who have, and those who do not. Those who belong to an ideal, and those who are excluded. This long-term trend eventually engenders a social slump that has always led to their downfall. Especially as the civilization of incivility characterized by contempt for the lives of others and genocides that have always been commonplace have always permeated the lasting disdain of the empire in the consciousness of peoples under yoke.After, analysis of historical facts colonization always generated in the end a slow but certain decline, of great empires, and with the current evolution and rapid spread of information that affects the behavior of the masses, declines that waited thousands of years to occur, take only a few centuries. In antiquity, the perception of an irreducible strangeness, is at the origin of the term "barbarian", which the Greeks attributed to anyone who spoke a language incomprehensible to them. This concept was taken up by the Romans, who built an empire around the Mediterranean, and facilitated migrations in this space, be it among elites aspiring to Roman citizenship, or slaves from all over the Empire and beyond. But, at the same time, the Romans sought to limit the external intrusions of the peoples they couldn’t dominate like the Germans, the Picts, the Moors, and many others, by the building for the purpose, fortified fence as the Wall of Adrien, in Great Britain.The construction of the Berlin Wall, the border wall between the United States and Mexico, or the barbed walls of the enclave of Melilla between Africa and western Europe, of our time simply take up the ideas of intolerance towards other peoples because of the standards that the so-called civilized nations have attributed to themselves and to others.The human factor is decisive in the implosion of empires, because general discontent, leads to disobedience to the established order, that leads to the sclerosis of the empire, which ends up falling as a mature fruit.The policy of empires since at least ancient Rome, is to exploit the colonies. To create a frontier both between countries and between men.As a rule, the populations of colonized or exploited nations face social and economic difficulties, because their resources are vampirized by the empire, there is consequently a climate of disavowal and unpopularity of the dominant power, that creates resentment that is anchored in the consciousness of colonized people generations after generations. The inhabitants of these disgruntled areas paradoxically often form the bulk of the population of the empire whether they are citizens of the metropolis or not.
Until the year 212 AD, there were no foreigners within the Roman Empire. The only distinction was made between the privileged Roman citizens and the indigenous peoples Roman citizens felt at home in Rome as well as in the other provinces of the Empire. they had certain specific rights, particularly in the domain of commercial contracts. This situation is similar with the example of Western citizens in Africa where they feel comfortable because all or almost all is allowed to them, with for example a stronger currency like the Euro or the Dollar that faces the CFA Franc, they can have a princely lifestyle, while nationals of colonized countries for those lucky enough to live in the western world are often undocumented; which implies that they have fewer rights than their Western counterparts, and even better if they are born on Western lands, or in cases of compliance with the law, nationals of countries marked by the colonization of the empire do not always have the same rights, since they undergo all kinds of discrimination because of their origin. The resentment of peoples, induced by the scornful policies of the empire is a time bomb, which leads to the radicalization of minds. While its decline was imminent the Roman Empire took some measures to review the discriminatory laws that had marked his empire for more than 500 years. Alas it was too late and this only precipitated its fall.
From the year 212, after decades of so-called integration policy the right of citizenship was granted to all those living in the metropolis excluding slaves. This decision, which according to the Roman authorities was to strengthen the empire which was plagued by several inner struggles and foreign wars brought it rather the coup de grace.Rome was considered the place of choice. People did not go there because they were attached to an ideal of citizenry, but simply because they wanted to take advantage of what Rome gave them from the material and social point of view. And worse because of the mistreatment that the new Romans had suffered for generations, many resented and felt that they could not sacrifice their lives to save an empire that had been so condescending to them or their parents. In the 3rd century of the present era, while Rome was increasingly attacked many citizens refused to engage in Roman legions.If the threat of demoting them into slaves in case of non-declaration of their person during the census, was to motivate them they were not less shy when it was necessary to go in the frontline. However, despite a violent social policy partly linked to the era, the Roman empire achieved much more on the infrastructural level than the various entities that can be taxed as Western empire, that since the transatlantic slavery dominate the affairs of the world.
From Turkey to North Africa, through Portugal, Great Britain, present-day Germany or the Black Sea coasts, the Roman Empire had totally integrated its provinces into its living standards building road networks and infrastructures, influencing school systems and introducing languages (Latin and Greek), while structuring the armies, and the law governing societies. To control its population, the Roman Empire resorted to mass deportations of peoples, settling them wherever it pleased, often to subdue the rebellions, or to influence the social fabric. Over a thousand year later the American government will do the same heaping up Native Indians on reserves, while Western colonial authorities in Africa often deported ethnic leaders and their families to other parts of their colonial empire. Nowadays Western authorities have since agreed to recover the populations of countries where they wage war like Syria. In 2015 The Merkel government in Germany, responded favorably to the pressure of employers' lobbies who sniffed the windfall that could be given to them by cheap labor made of war refugees. In, 378 after the forced installation of the Goths, autonomous and armed, on the soil of the Empire, and their mutiny in Adrianople (present-day Turkey) which provoked one of the greatest Roman military disasters, the government overtaken by the events renounced to manage the entry of barbarian laborers in the empire, as it had done for centuries, the ineffectiveness of its immigration policy, in fact, led to the vanishing of Roman authority in the provinces.
This imperial incapacity sealed the loss of authority of the Empire, by exploding the notion of Roman territory opposed to the so-called barbarian world, which had throughout the centuries mastered the tactics of the colonial adversary, and returned against Rome, weapons it had often learned to master under duress. . The Western world has enough elements to know the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire which it tries since to emulate, correcting the errors of the latter by using several stratagems. At first the Westerners understood that they had to exploit without developing, because by developing the countries under their yoke they create potential adversaries who could master the knowledge and to turn it against them. Therefore, Westerners influence the type of education that favors administration at the expense of engineering, to populations under its domination to limit their capacity to produce, to use their resources and compete in the global market. In countries like South Africa, western colonizers created a language different from their own to put a veil in the eyes of indigenous peoples, and confine them to underdevelopment. On the political plan, the West has since managed to have leaders who are submitted to its agenda to safeguard his beneficial influence. On the psychological level, the West was inspired by one of the causes of the fall of ancient Rome, namely the spread of Christianity. It is obvious that at one point, the citizens of ancient Rome were more preoccupied with the affairs of heaven instead of concentrating on the challenges that their nations and themselves were facing on earth, with the plethora of invasions that the empire was undergoing. . In the same way, the imperial forces of the West have since plotted to impoverish the minds of the people of their dominions, so that they do not deal with earthly, but divine affairs. Faith in a Christian or Muslim ideal often prevents them from thinking energetically about their future and the building of wealthy nations. when all is handed over to God, there is very little left for men to do, even for their own freedom.Just as ancient Rome did not skimp on means to attract the brains of the regions it dominated, for example the technology of glassware or maternal surgery was introduced from Egyptian glassmakers and African scientists, the Western empire exploits shamelessly human resources of the countries it dominates. brain drain is encouraged by a complex socioeconomic mechanism. The precariousness of life in the tropics ultimately serves to vampirize the countries of elites who can infuse a change in the human condition in the tropics, while the rigid laws that favor the plethora of undocumented migrants in Western metropolises create a slave labor, who working on the black market contributes greatly to the economy without receiving in return any social security coverage, or substantial wages such as the caste of metropolitan citizens.In any case, as Michel De Jaeghere points out in his book Les Derniers Jours. La Fin de l'Empire Romain d'Occident (The Last days. The end of the Roman Empire of the West), it is illusory to claim to maintain an area of civilization surrounded by a periphery delivered to anarchy and misery. Because prosperity will always irresistibly attract people who see it. The great multinational empires are worthless in defense. They are excellent at expanding, as long as they are carried by the irresistible character that their power seems to give to their domination, namely the wealth and prestige derived from the exploitation of the resources which their annexations and their right of interference provide. But they are incapable of arousing in their people the devotion that the sentimental attachment to a carnal homeland alone can inspire to citizens. Their inhabitants can be attached to them as long as they bring prosperity, peace and well-being. But they will rarely agree to question the comfort that the empire brings them by sacrificing their lives for its defense. These empires are therefore condemned to perpetual conquest, which implies perpetual war, withering, or both. This statement bluntly reveals the clear intentions of the Western empire, which has since embarked on a global war to delay the end of its decline, the Islamism it has created by the dissatisfaction its policies have aroused in the Middle East, as well as its hand in the arms trade, and its opaque relations with sponsors of terrorism such as Saudi Arabia tends to reinforce the theses of a hell wanted, to maintain the status quo. However, bankruptcy is inevitable, the panic that China seems to arouse and the reaffirmation of Russia as a military power are the warning signs of the certain decline of the Western bloc, which to stay alive will have no other choice but to ally with the nations that it has always fought not to remain leader but to at least survive. But as in the past, if this theory of survival is pragmatic, it has no chance to succeed because on one side there is the pride of the empire in decline and on the other the rancor of its victims ...
Hubert Marlin
Journalist
